This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jaken Zalez sound Fox Sports
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z R two SA at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera, He's Jacin Zauce. Got our guy E on today. We'll get
first fifteen minutes here. Welcome to Thursday. Feels like Friday if I fall
asleep, Jay, I got in Really, I was gonna ask you,
how was the drive home? It sucked? What times you get out of
there? One thirty? You left it? Yeah? I go home at
three thirty? No? Yeah, wow, Yeah it sucked. The last
guys in the building me Channel four guy, the new Channel four guy,
and one of the Goagy Cats guys, H Dave. Yeah it sucked.
And nobody in downtown Phoenix. Why what did you think about staying there?
Oh? No, no, no, no, I had to get back
any get back man. Yeah, it was it was tough. I'm I
woke up with ten and whatever it was. It was tiring. How was
that? How did it set you know, look good. How was the
atmosphere? I mean again about certainly not the neutral quarter was supposed to be
sure? Sure, yeah, no, ninety percent if not more Arizona fans
obviously a lot of them, a lot of ninety percent it was, yeah,
because Alabama had few, But I mean, how full was it?
About ninety A lot of people, a lot of fans who don't get to
see the Did you listen to his press conference? So so I'm sure I
didn't stay up for that. I'm sure you know I had to. But
one of the things that he mentioned, Tommy Lloyd mentioned is he wants to
make this an annual event. Did you hear that? So he wants to
make a play in Phoenix in front of the fans up there. So he
has some ideas of making that happen, which is a brilliant idea because they
have so many fans that don't get to see them the regular and then they'll
get a good game out of it, right. And it was a cool
thing because you know, all four you know, both ACU and Arizona teams,
all four of them got to play. You know, they were all
on TV, which was bad news fair ASU basketball because they were awful.
Yeah, well U of A didn't play. Yeah, well either, but
they wont Oh you mean the women women, Yeah, by time A su
men. Oh yeah, terrible, horrible, but yeah, your Arizona women
lost. But you know, uh yeah, I mean that would be that
that that seemed like a cool event. I could see, you know,
you know, people would love to take in, you know, one of
the two double headers. And my I mean my daughters went to you know,
to the Arizona game. They stayed, spent the night there. I'm
like, you know, my daughter Rachel, who's just you know, such
a rabid fan as she dragged her sister with her and they went, you
know, and and a lot of people ask me, are you going?
Are you going? And it didn't. It never really dawned on me to
go. I just, you know, so much going on here. But
at nine o'clock game, you know, I guess you could have gone,
you know, leave leave here, you six o'clock and get there, and
you have I wouldn't drive, M'd spend the night. It was well you
get an out of eleven thirty, yeah, because all traffic, right,
all the people are eleven thirty one thirty. Yeah, from your east Side.
Yeah, I don't like that. You've seen them enough. Yeah,
you see, and tonight last night they looked pretty good in spurts. It
was it was it was a stilted, stuttering awfulness in the first half.
Yeah, well, you know the way they came out, and I'm I'm
not sure what that is because they've done that against bad teams where it didn't
look as bad as that first few minutes when they were down nine to nothing.
It'd given up four or five offensive rebounds in like the first three or
four possessions, you know. I mean it was four almost five minutes gone
before they got their first field goal, and I'm like, are they really
going to do this? And then they didn't? You know, right,
well, that's the one thing I never thought they'd lose one, and I
never thought they wouldn't cover uh, because they have that, they have that
bite in them in the second half. Yeah, and it took their defense
to start it right, you know, Pelly doing for the ball, found
the found the man, blah blah blah. Then kJ Lewis stole day.
Uh, and they made that fourteen to zero run and kind of put it
away. I still think they have they have issues. I don't know what
those issues are, but let me tell you I know one. You need
to finish closer to the basket Ballo needs to finish closer because those two feet
when he gets the free line. Although Tommy said his free throws are tight
down tight, isn't good. You don't want to trust it, right,
you don't want to trust it. And crevas is the crevas does not.
I remember we saw him early and he said, this guy's gonna get it.
It gives you Duke. Yeah, he hasn't. He hasn't. He
hasn't improved. He hasn't improved at a small baby step way, you know,
yeah you know, I mean, you know, just a couple of
lamps that he missed where he looked intimidated, maybe, yeah, you know,
by by the athletic guys around him, maybe because he hasn't faced this
kind of athlete, you know, you know, the guys that can jump
out of the building, right, you know, and and uh, you
know, I'm like dunk the dang ball. Didn We shused to say that
about du Son all the time, Dunk the damn balld Son and Stokes go
up strong and dunk it and make him follow you, well, how was
it to be seven foot? Tell was it to be? I don't know,
me too, So we don't we don't know, right, we don't
see it. I don't know how it is to be six ft, you
know. And then yeah, and then there was another another long stretch with
Kylon Boswell on the bench. Yeah, because I didn't think he was playing
particularly bad. But you know, nobody was pretty playing particularly great in the
first half and early in the second half. And then he came and then
he comes in and he went nuts. You know, Caleb Love all of
a sudden, you know, he flipped a switch, you know, Caleb
Love, and you know, he had nothing, and all of a sudden
he ends up with what, uh, sixteen or thirteen points? And then
you know, boy, Evan, my column man told us that Pela Larson
is the most important guy for the most influential guy on on the team.
And last night you I because, as you said, because of the conversation
we had about Pellett Well on I called in. I called in, yes
to say that he really does have that kind of influence he's in the game.
Yeah, and things happened. So so now I think between you and
I or with you, and I'll we'll probably keep an eye on that because
now we before we didn't really notice. Yeah, now we noticed. And
last night he was a spark. He shut the ball well. But the
thing with him is he's not as flamboyant or he doesn't. He just gets
a jump, just business like. You look at his line. You know,
six of twelve field goals he hit a three point in, one of
three, three or four free throw, six rebounds, two of those were
offensive, sixteen points to assists, three steals, two blocks in the turnover,
A little bit of everything, a little bit of everything, and that's
what he does. Let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air
and one on the ball. Is it going today? It was a fun
experience last night. You went right? Yeah, I went okay, So
tell me. Jay was asking me about the percentages or whatever. I thought
it was about ninety percent Arizona fans. Yeah, I thought so too.
And you know, it was one of those things where the fans really wanted
to get into the game, I thought more than the players did. I
agree, But you know what, and they kind of sparked some of that.
Yeah, the announcement they did, the announcers the The announcers actually said
that. They said, Arizona fans looking for a reason, you know,
to get into the game. They did, and then ultimately they did.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it was it was a lot of fun.
I mean it was, like you guys said, about ninety ninety five percent
full at that place. It seemed like it was, you know, and
except the top, the very top sections on each end were empty, but
otherwise it was it was full. And considering it was a nine o'clock game,
I thought the Arizona fans turnout was unbelievable. Yeah, yeah, no
question. Yeah, it was a fun It was a fun drive home.
I got home. I got home a little after two o'clock anymore. But
you know, to me, I thought they like you guys brought up,
they got to finish around the basket. I don't understand why Ballo, who's
this supposed massive guy, cannot just take the ball and keep the ball off
the ground and just take it right back up and slam it home instead of
trying for a soft little lay up or whatever. You know. Yeah,
thing, yes they did. They both for some reason, they put the
ball right on the ground and the small guards whatever just take the ball away
from every time. Yeah, but you know that they played well. I
think I think the toughness of the schedule might be wearing them down a little
bit. It's hard maybe mentally. And they still got one tough game coming
up Saturday night. Yeah, have Saturday afternoon. I would think they're looking
forward to the break. I think so too. I think they're looking forward
to the break of the pack twelve conference. I don't say that too loudly
because they need to do well in that because you got to keep their status.
Right. Oh, I know, I know it, And it's going
to be hard because we don't have any I guess point generated games coming up
unless U C. L A and USC and Oregon can figure out to turn
their turn their season around. Otherwise, you know, we can win a
lot of games and dropping the polls or dropping the RPI whatever they call it.
Yeah, exactly, exactly, all right, Brian, Hey, thanks
a much, man. Okay, okay there, yeah, now I again,
it was as you said, you know, I don't know that I
was worried that they were going to lose the game. I you know,
when a game like that, I'm like, okay, I want them to
cover because I don't want anybody, you know, saying, well, now
you're not this, you're not that. You know, in Alabama's a pretty
good team. So they they did some things that made Arizona struggle a little
bit. But I did think that into the second half, you know,
they're just they wear people down. They just do Yeah, yeah, I
look was good. I was looking at the minutes you know, uh kJ
Lewis and uh and Jade and Bradley. You know, kJ Lewis played twenty
two, Jayden Bradley played sixteen. You know that's a that's an amount of
minutes where you know they're really good, right, There's not a big drop
off when you have those guys, and and they can wear a team down.
So I think one of the other things besides you're the basket shots that
they didn't hit. One thought that I had that was not a good thought.
And I got a couple of texts, in fact, because I turned
to Sheer and I said, here's a problem. For six, five or
six possessions, at least five. They took one shot right, one shot.
It was it was either Love or Boswell or Boswell, Love or Boswell,
Love or Boswell. I'm thinking they didn't even get even think about getting
into the office. Right. Well, yeah, you know, uh after
one of the press conferences a week or so ago, maybe two weeks ago,
uh with with Tommy, I you know, I just asked him,
I said, you know, how many assists you know what's important to you?
And he said, if we get twenty assists, I'm happy. You
know who you got last night? Twelve twelve assists and twenty eight bas right.
And there was one in particular that you know they're trying to you know,
there's still there. I think they were down four or five they didn't
get they got, you know, and Colin Boswell dribbles, you know,
dribbles into the into the front court and stops and launches about, you know,
a twenty five foot three pointer. I'm like, what was that?
You could you saw Tommy in the background. He put his hands out like
what the hell was this? Not doing that same sequence? So I was
talking about I think, so there was six and you're thinking that's not a
good shot. It was not. That was not something. And Tommy was
he you could see him it. The shot goes up and he misses.
You see the rebound and I my eye went straight to thommas he did what
did he think? And he put his hands up like, what the hell?
What are you doing here? Yeah, here's I'm gonna give you lee,
but not that much anyway. Yeah, Tommy was it was it was
at it last night. Yeah, he got it animated. Was that his
first taste been here? Yeah it was. Yeah, he was before he
got the tea, was like, I turned the shoes. So I've never
I tweeted, I've never seen him this animated. I put down to finish
my tweet and he was getting teed because he looked at rafts Stadler. I
guess he had looked at wrestler like what the hell and the ref saw him
do that, and he got the tee up. He was on his assistance
to one of the uh not the Murphy guy, but the other guy.
I guess they have this relationship where you just say, shut the hell up,
you shut the held up, you know, back and forth, which
was funny to me because you know, I don't you don't see that.
Yeah, no, And and honestly it was weird too because from where I
was sitting on my couch, it was what because there's a tea that did
you dunk on from your couch, did mister seven footer, did you get
the dunk from your cout? From where I sat, it looked like one
of those technicals that got the team fired up. I can't remember that.
I can't remember that. It just seemed like there was you know, the
guys that were on the court suddenly like they played pissed off for the next
few minutes. And I thought, because some teas, you know, it
really hurts the team, and some teas it fires them up. I think
they got fired up to see Tommy get teed up because he was pissed and
and uh, it was. It was. It was strange. It was
a strange still did stuttering sputtering first half. Still in the second there was
forty five files called forty five fifty some free throws taken. It was a
long drawn out yeah, but you know they survived. The thing about a
gene, I was thinking this in the second half, if they run up
against a team that's better than Bama and shoots it, well, this could
be trouble. Steve. You can say that about you know, any good
team, a good shore. Look. Pretty much all the good teams are
capable of beating you. The question is do they beat you that night with
what they do? As you know, as we're talking off air, we
got to go here in a second. If Alabama shoots its average from three,
Arizona loses the game, but they didn't. If Purdue shoots his average
from three, Arizona wins that game, but they didn't. So you just
you know, when you're playing a good team, they're capable of beating you.
It's just do they do the things that they need to do to beat
you. And last night, Arizona, whether it was Arizona's defense or they
just couldn't shoot from three, whatever it was, Arizona won the game because
of that. Right, Okay, let's it for this rind J. Perry.
She's the CEO of the Phoenix a Final Four host committee. She's been
on the show before, just talking about things going on with the final with
the Final Four for there Today's World Basketball Day. You said, yeah that,
so jay'son going to command and just kind of give us an update on
things going on with the preparations for the Final Four up in that's gonna be
up at the Cardinals Stadium in April, So stick around for more than twenty
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Steve Rivera and Jagen Salmas. This is Ia Lapa on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteenth
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacobs Sauls and I would only have j
Perry, the CEO the Final Four Hosts Committee. How are you, Jake?
I am fantastic. How How are you all doing today? Doing well?
I heard you were at the basketball game last night with you they How
did you like it or what did you see? It was an exciting game,
right It started off a little bit slow for a Wildcat and you know,
coming back from half time when it was basically tied up, it was
a great game. There was great energy. I love how the Arizona fans
travel even just to come up to Phoenix. It was from the women's game
leading into the men's game. It was a lot of fun well being that
you're you're you're involving with the Final Fours as the host. Certainly, you
know one of those times that I know Arizona fans sitting down here, going
we would love to see Arizona in a final four. They disappointed the hell
out of the fans back in eighteen twenty. Was the twenty eighteen the last
one? I think it was a lot of expectation that year that Arizona would
get to that final four and they didn't. But you know, when you
think about that, is it for a final four that doesn't really matter.
I mean, it's going to be seventy two thousand of madness. No matter
who's there, it is going to be madness. And you know you all
have been. I mean, it's just great energy, right. I mean,
it's one of the best sporting events to I think witness in person,
especially with two games on Saturday and then the championship game on Monday. And
I mean, it's going to be Mayhem no matter what. But if we
had one of our local Arizona teams in it, that would take it over
the top, I think because all the lead up, right, all the
excitement of March Madness would just you know, it would have the state and
I mean it'd be on fire. You don't want seventy two thousand yearsona fan.
It'll be banker. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, yeah,
there's a yeah, there you'd be. There'd be some bad ones in there.
I'm pretty I'm pretty sure. Yes, yes, the numbers game.
Yeah, in fact, yes, so you know that's seventy. Some are
ticket sales available? Now, what's the process? Right here in late December,
so tickets aren't really available on the open market right now. We had
our basically sweep steaks for tickets over the summer just as we came out of
the Houston Final four, and so I think as we get close to the
game, there'll be some some other opportun comunities for tickets, whether it's through
some of the ticket suppliers or through on location. So I think, just
you know, stay tuned on that. All right. So we're talking to
you today because today is World Basketball Day, the first World Basketball Day that
was declared by the United Nations. So you know, with with with with
what you're doing and your involvement with arguably outside of the NBA Finals, you
know, probably one of the largest, if not the biggest, or most
visible basketball event. What does World Basketball Day mean? To what you're doing
in the Final Four that's here in Arizona this year. Well, we're excited
that the United Nations did deem today as the inaugural World Basketball Day, and
just what they said about basketball and why they selected this day, and how
it transcends borders and cultures and languages, and just how it's a unifying force
for our communities. I think we've seen that in Arizona right we have such
great basketball passion and basketball teams from a college standpoint, a professional standpoint with
the Suns and Mercury, that we love the idea of celebrating basketball, and
it's a rich history with the game being invented one hundred and thirty two years
ago, and so we love all that tradition in history and love that we
get to, you know, come next April, have all eyes on Arizona
and have the men's Final Four put us on the global stage. I think
we spoke to you a few months ago, you said maybe in April,
May June's about that seems like yesterday to me. What are your priorities right
now? So the priorities right now are we are in really the final phases
of planning and moving into execution in January, and so it's kind of it's
a little crazy right now in the planning, and it's going to get real
crazy come January. We work really closely with the CAA on all of their
programs and how we can involve student athletes as well as students in the final
four planning. So we're putting all the finishing touches on lots of programs that
you'll see starting in January. So when you talk about that, you know,
obviously it's such a big event that the whole community needs to get involved
in. I think even you know, down in Tusson, there's people,
you know, I know people who are voluntaring. I'm one of them.
We're going to be volunteering for the event up there. But you know,
how much how much can you spread that out so that there is sort of
a statewide involvement with this and you know, you get the help because we
know, I mean, it takes a massive number of people to pull this
thing together, outside of even the people whose job it is like yours right
right, And we do see it as a community event. I mean,
we have business leaders, elected officials, tribal leaders that are are tourism industry
obviously that are all very involved in the planning, and we do think of
it as how can we get others involved. So right now we have a
Read to the Final Four program, which is a reading competition for third graders
around the state. We've got over fifteen thousand third graders that are reading and
they'll go into a sixty eight school basket and then you know they'll go from
there and we'll end up with the final four schools come early April. So
lots of ways for the state to be involved. So this may be a
dumb question, given that you're the CEO, do you do you go out
and scout teams two or that? That's just another section of people who do
that. That is really the responsibility of the NCAA. So they handle right
all of the basketball aspects of it, the selection Sunday. They put a
lot of time and effort into that, and so the Men's Basketball Committee really
drives that. We want to show. The said is do you, as
a basketball fan likely do you kind of or kind of pull for certain schools
or whatever, Like you know, maybe you're not a a grad and you
think maybe if Arizona gets here, it'll be better, right, I'm you
know, when it comes to these big events, I'm fairly agnostic or a
little bit like Switzerland, because as you said at the top of the hour,
it's going to be an amazing event, you know, no matter who
comes to town to play, and what we try to do is really make
sure that Arizona is represented. It's you know, basically creating a lot of
impact for Arizona in a lot of different ways. And so those are the
types of programs we're focused on as the host committee, knowing that it's going
to be a great commercial for our state. You know, when when you
know my experience and Steve's done this as a as a journalist, and I've
been you know, I've been involved in working NCY double a, you know
with you know the ASU guys, Doug Tamro, Mark brown Back, Mark
ran back in the day. But so there's like this isn't their first roadie,
right, there's a way to do all this. You guys have done
a final four up there already. Are there are there lessons learned all the
time? Are there things that you're doing or not doing with this final flour
that maybe you know you learn something from the last one that was up up
in the Phoenix area. What can you take from having done this already once
before? Right, Well, twenty seventeen, the first time we hosted was
really successful and the state and you know did a great job of it.
And so what we looked at is what are some of those things that we
want to do again, And so we have a Legacy Court project that we
work with the NCAAA on that we'll do again. We did have a reading
challenge, but the question is how do we make it, you know,
so even more kids are involved in it. So it's all about how we're
elevating the experience for our residence and also our visitors. And then we get
to go and look at Final Fours that have been hosted in other cities since
twenty seventeen to see what they're up to as well. Right, how does
this compare as far as that goes in terms of you know, preparing for
visitors and and you know, just having all the infrastructure in place for you
know, to help people get around and whether it's getting tickets or having an
event. You know, how does all of that in terms of what you're
doing with the Final Four compared to doing it for the Super Bowl. That's
a great question. The good thing is we have a team of trained professionals
that have worked on a Super Bowl, that have worked on a Final Four
in the past, that have worked on a college football playoff game, and
so when we go work with Sky Harbor Airport, I mean, they are
a well oiled machine for these major events, right same with the light rail
system. State Farm Stadium has so many enhancements since we host it in twenty
seventeen, and so the fans and the media and the visitors are going to
get to see that, you know, once they step inside the stadium.
So I think there's a lot of intention from our leadership here in Arizona to
make sure that we are we are staying best in class and that we are
staying competitive so that we continue to attract these major events. One of the
things that that's maybe a little different than last time when you had it five
six years ago, is the area that you're going to be in has changed.
I mean, you have the Diamond now, it's more more commercial.
You know, there's a lot more things to do that area, right right,
Yeah, I mean if you look at there'll be a lot of activities
in downtown Phoenix, and it's grown up a lot since twenty seventeen. There's
new buildings and new restaurants and new hotels that everyone can take advantage of.
And then if you go out to State Farm Stadium, that looks really different
around the stadium than it did in twenty seventeen. So I think it is
great when we can introduce these visitors back to Arizona and they can say,
oh my gosh, there's so many new great things as well as then they
travel around the state. I mean, I can tell you I've had several
people tell me I went down to Sabino Canyon and did some hiking, you
know, I went up to the Grand Canyon and did some hiking after the
Final four And those are those are memories that those people bring back for you
know a second or time. I think I asked you this the last time
you you were on and I'm gonna ask it again because I don't know if
it's changed or that. But when you know, when right now today with
with you know where you guys are in your preparation, and you know,
as you said, you're getting you're getting to the end of the planning period.
Getting ready to the execution period. You know what's on your mind when
you're putting your head on the pillow at night. What's what's got you know,
what's going through your brain? What are you thinking about, whether good
or bad? Right? Well? What what's uh? What's got your attention
right now? What we're really focused on is how we make those events the
week of the Final four phenomenal. Right, So we want to have a
lot of people attend. We want the volunteers to have a great time,
we want the visiting student athletes to have a great time. And so we're
really already focused on what are we going to do around the experiences in early
April. That's kind of the first thing. And then the second thing is
how are we leaving a positive, lasting legacy on Arizona. Which sounds really
high level, but when you boil it down, you know, we're doing
a reading program, We're doing some sustainability in tree plantings, we are doing
a legacy court renovation, and so things that will be in Arizona long after
the game is played. That's really important to us. I'm assuming you kind
of did a preliminary economic impact study on what's going to happen then, and
then how many people do you estimate to come into town. We estimate probably
about one hundred thousand visitors, and we'll have about seventy five thousand bands at
the games. And in twenty seventeen, the economic impact was measured by Arizona
State University at about three hundred and twenty four twenty five million dollars. So
we'll do that same measurement after the event and when we do our wrap up
reports and expect to see an uptick from that. Sure, that's that's a
bit of a number for sure, but in large part, I mean that's
why you know, they're so attractive to communities, right to do those things,
you know, to get that kind of you know impact. Well,
when you get to the end of it, you know, what's what's going
to be the most important thing to you to look back and say, Okay,
we did this well, because this happened. I think we did this
well by as you said, welcoming visitors to Arizona, making it an easy,
you know, seamless way to move around. They created memories that they
will never forget. I mean, I love what I love about sports is
these LifeLock lifelong memories that we get to create. You know, I have
so many from when I went to sporting events with my dad. You know,
I golfed with my dad. I mean, I just have all these
great memories of a championship at the Phoenix Mercury, and those are the things
that you know, just take with you for the rest of your life.
Is that what got you into into this in the first place. I think
it is. I mean we were we grew up as sports fan. You
know, my dad took us to every sporting event under the sun. The
poor guy had three daughters no son, so he paid the price for that.
But ultimately, you know, it was definitely in our DNA growing up
as kids, and I've just kind of carried it into my professional so it's
not so much a boy named Sue is a boy named j Ex. Maybe
that's why I got a boy's name. I think, you know, again,
I had to pay the price for being the third daughter. Could you
hit the curveball? I guess you'll have to see if you do his job
right exactly. Funny, Well, Jay, I know you got you know,
still a lot of work ahead of you. You know, I think,
you know, I know, there's a lot of people looking forward to
this just because it is cool to have a Final four or a super Bowl
or a ball playoff game in the state. It always shows well and so
we know that you guys are you know, are making sure that that happens
again. So you know, good luck with all of that. And uh,
you know, you keep going at it. And I don't know if
we'll have a chance to talk again, but if we can, we will,
well I hope we do. We appreciate your support, Tucson and you
know, Arizona. Let's just keep all that positive mojo going. It's what
I say. Maybe you'll see some a lot of blue and red. We'll
see what happened in the next two and a half months. Be careful what
I wish for. Thanks, thank you very much. Thanks Stephen, Jane,
appreciate holiday. Send you what a dumb question I asked? Yeah,
you did, but you know what I was. I knew it was a
dumb question what I was asking. But Steve, you know once again,
well again you have to realize that you know, the n C double A
has what it does. They have a formula for how they do what they're
what what what what This committee is doing is everything that goes around that to
make sure that what the n C double A is doing doesn't you know.
Well, let me tell you something. This is something I haven't de volt
yet. Uh I knew. I knew that way when I was asking the
question, I probably didn't even know how to ask a question. I'm part
of the media group that's going to be doing that. I'm a media group
as a committee. Oh okay, So they wanted to come on board and
be one of the media members who will pick the sixty four teams. Not
not part of the real committee, but our own committee. Right, we're
going to emulate the committee. It starts starts the next month. Well,
then, as I mentioned, you know, I'm a I'm a volunteer.
I'll be working with the with the media operation up there, you know,
with the you know, the days you guys were hosting it and you and
you cover and you did the seventeen I thought I was eighteen, but seventeen.
Yeah, that one, yeah, right where it was was there for
that. It's a it's a it's a it's a long day, long days,
a lot of fun days, and it's a massive event. The organization
that goes into this but as you say, you know, the the n
C Double A is a well oiled machine. They knew this. They do
it every year and and they're day. They're dang good at it. And
you see that when you go there and see how organized everything they are till
that you get to be the sixty, ninth, seventieth, and seventy first
team not involved into the tournament. Exactly exactly, So all right, that's
fine, Jay Perry from the Phoenix Organizing Committee for the final four. So
we'll be back a little bit. We're gonna have a good friend coming on
in the second hour, John Mordich, who covered sports with us back in
the day when we were all doing that here in Tucson. He'll be joining
us. We'll probably go down memory lane then, but for now, we'll
take your cause in the next segment five, because they're a poem six seventy
four, forty we're right back. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan,
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to Iying about your own Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jacobs awas better guy. E with us
today fifteen minutes, fourteen minutes. If we want to give us a quick
call, five too oh sixty six up. I can give you my cell
phone number five two oh four one six seventy four forty. If you have
my cell phone number, don't text me quick. We'll put on social media.
If you want to there people pee call me and tell me about you.
Get it out there for you. I'm still told you I'm as sleep.
I'm asleep. Last night was a logged long day. You know it
was funny too, because you know, I mean, I watched the game
in my you know, my big team in my family room. So I
went to bed after the game was over. Then I went and did my
usual puttering around on my iPad. So of a sten I realized, I
look at the clock and talk, But what am I doing? Awake?
Still you know, realizing that the game ended late and instead of you know,
just calling it a day, I you know, I partnered around and
I sudden and I had to me and I had to get up for at
seven thirty this morning, Like what the hell am I doing? It?
Crazy? But again, you know, watching this game, and you know,
I'm I've been scrolling through social media, you know, different parts of
the day today. You know, people still like, well, they didn't
play well for this half. They like, you know, good teams are
gonna make you look bad at a points in the game. Sure, no,
dude, The question is do you win the game? I get texts
and we're gonna have John on next hour. I'll bring him out and tell
him, you know, because he does that these him sounds blah blah.
I get text Victor old man. I got to walk him off the ledge
God during the game. I can't watch a game because I'm answering responses to
Facebook and Twitter. Yeah, well, Victor was one. He came on
after the Purdue game. It's like, we suck. Yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah, No, we don't. They don't suck. They lost to
a really good team. You know, Pelle doesn't suck. He had a
bad game, you know, kind of Colin Buzzwo doesn't suck. He had
he had a not good game. You know what. Those two guys had
bad games, and Purdue wins the game, and that's what happens, and
you just hope that that doesn't happen. That's why it's so hard. People
don't realize how hard it is twin the national Championship and win those six games,
right, I play your best, and even let's let's think about the
year that Arizona won it. They didn't play well in their opener. No,
it's when they wanted to me because they never played well in the opener
and that's where they had to come back. And then they won that all
of a sudden. Okay, now we're really damn good. But then even
again that you know, people assumed that because they had providence in the in
the in the Elite eight, oh we can be over. And they go
to overtime and they lost their big lead and they went into overtime and then
Kansas so the other shot away. No, it's dodging a lot of bullets,
man, And that that's what makes that thing so hard. So when
you win it, that's why I said, as much of a big deal.
It's really hard to win. I don't know how many how good you
are. I don't know how many people had Yukon last year. I know
I didn't. I know a lot of people who didn't. I know I
didn't either. Yeah, it shouldn't be It should be a lot of fun.
Especially it's around the corner from here and we'll be up there up in
Phoenix. Yeah, what is it that? Like what we can April third
fifth, it's that first weekend in April, so it's always that Monday that
sad. So it's actually it's going to be the thirtieth and the first thirtieth
and oh so this is That's exactly how I could be wrong. It could
be wrong about that whatever that Monday is in April, because it was the
thirtieth and the first when they won in ninety seven. Yeah, I think
I'm wrong about that because everything's for some reason, it's all just a little
later. Yeah, No, it's April sixth and eight. Yes, so
it's later in the A. The regionals are you know, through through the
first so or the thirty thirty first waever, so it's it's the sixth and
eight so that slips a little further into into April. But you know it's
it's it's a hard thing to do, and and you know you gotta be
good, you gotta be lucky, right, and and that that's how you
that's how you win that thing, no matter how good you are, I
mean, you can be again. Go back to that ninety that ninety seven
Kansas team, hands down the best team in the country, well by a
lot. Well I'll give you the ninety eight Arizona team right right, one
of the best, if not the best team uh in the country that year.
But they're looking looking at me. But I remember Kansas being like way
up here and everybody after that way down here in ninety seven. Remember there,
they had one loss and they were just like the prohibitive favorite to win
the thing. Over the last several years there there's been a favorite, but
not a prohibitive favorite, somebody who said there's no way those guys don't win
it, like I thought. I feel that my recollection is correct, that
that's what people thought of Kansas, which is why the game was so shocked
they did. Yeah, mister Williams cried on this podium. But maybe it's
me I remember, you know, I remember watching that game and where Why
There's a friend of mine lived down the street. Okay, so we went
and we went to his house to watch the game. Which which game?
The Kansas Kansas went to his house to watch the game. Any Arizona was
in the lead and bit but I still so thought Arizona's not going to win
this game. We went home at halftime. You know why they won that
game? Why? Mike Bibby was fantastic. Yeah, oh yeah, But
I so didn't really believe because normally, you know, I'm the I'm the
mojo guy, right, I don't get up from the couch, you know,
because I'll blow the mojo. I just didn't think they were going to
win that game. And I went home and watched the second half of it
at home. Yeah, and I'm like, wait a minute, they actually
won this game. Yeah, No, it was a great situation. Bibby
was fantastic. He played beyond his years that tournament. Yeah, and in
fact, I think he should have been the MVP of the whole thing.
I with that, Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean there was so
much that he did during that during that six you know, six games stretch,
right, and Miles did a good job at the final four. But
and that's what the tournament about. The final four was the most Outsetani player,
but Bib was Jason Terry's all of them, all of them played well
again and then that it all came together for a team that obviously had finished
had the talent, but you didn't know that they did because they were so
bad during you know they at times during the regular season, right right,
and so good the year after only losing once and then sucking against what Utah.
I mean, that's why that was heartbreaking. I was so heartbreaking.
I mean we you know, we went to that and again I I've told
the story after after they beat beat Maryland in the in the you know,
in Street sixteen, I called my brother and said, hey, we got
a couple more tickets to get up here, you know, be here on
Sunday. And they got here, You got them the tickets and they lost,
and they're like, what the heck? Why the hell did I show
up for that? It was such a bad game. It was such a
horrible game. It was. It was awful, right, So I witnessed
it. I was there. Yeah, but you know, as we were
talking with with both Evan Mike cow and I think you know other others,
and I think we've talked about this a little bit yesterday with Ryan Hanson.
There's so many teams that can win this right now. Oh yeah, well,
so many in terms of what maybe well, I mean fatish, five,
six, seven, eight teams you know you think can win it.
And it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that some other team like
a again a San Diego State from last year or one can jump up and
bite everybody. There isn't a truly dominant team in college basketball right now,
you know, I mean Arizona would look as be as unbeatable as any team
has looked this year, and then they got beat by Purdue because the two
guys that you know went off on them, you know, in that game
on Saturday. Yeah, no, I agree, It just it is what
it is. Yukon lost by fifteen last night. You've seen what the hell
was that? Yeah? No, it's fun. And North Carolina beat seven
over seven Oklahoma. That's why I love college basketball. You just don't know,
Yeah, you just don't in any given name home court advantage. Yea,
yea. There was one that had a clear home court advantage. I'm
not too sure if that that. They could hit shots both teams. Yeah,
they look they were awful in the first half. I mean, just
look at the numbers from the prow. It was first half shooting percentages were
terrible. Okay, I've gotten right here. Alabama shot thirty one percent in
the first half, Arizona shot forty one. Arizona was three of twelve from
three point and Alabama was three of twenty two. Yeah, three to twenty
two. Yeah, and then only five of eighteen in the second half,
eight of forty. I would say, no, wonder the Sons are horrible
because they did haven't taken the lid off the basket yet. Yeah, you
can't hit shots. Arizona only shot seventeen three pointers last night. Yeah,
very conservative. And the one Kalem Boswall made that one in the second half.
That was a huge, huge, right right after not having been doing
any so. One of the things I thought they did really well, and
it's the guards, dude, that's they attacked the basket. It went after
the basket right, and you could tell they're gonna be good at kJ Lewis.
The dude's gonna be a Stuve. Yeah, you know that was right
right. Hanson gave us the full his full pregame show analysis because he was
a game yesterday. He was on the show and and and he talked about
that, how you know that Arizona needs to Alabama doesn't have a Zach and
nobody's got Zach Eatie, but it doesn't have a big true back to the
basket center that you know that, and they didn't that Arizona should be able
to get into the lane and make things happen and boom. Guess what,
That's exactly what Tommy Lloyd did because those guys, I mean, how many
times did did did Caleb Love, Colin Boswell, kJ Lewis go down the
lane and get get a Kelly Larson and they're big guy's gotten too foul trouble
and we're fell down. Those two two guys, those two guys have followed
out like three games in a row now, the same two guys. It's
like, dudes, oh, you know what I ran into attention to that?
You know what I ran into last night? I'm sure if I thought
about you do you know who? Uh Gig Burn? Oh yeah, at
the end of the game with him and his wife Regina. Uh, he's
this is him. He's been on the show before. What are you up
to these days, Steve? Well, well, I have the radio show
still and I work, you know, our website And he says, oh
yeah, yeah. I says, well, I said, after you win
the title, you come on the show. He says. He says,
well, he'll come on the show, but he didn't want to go there.
I said, I already bet it, you guys, I really liked
them, I mean, honestly, Alabama, yeah, I really like them.
In Michigan might beat them, but I really like Alabama sometimes again,
Destiny, they should not even be in it the fourth and forever, and
they got the touchdown, right, you're right, No, you're a hundred
percent correct. They should be in it, but they are. But they
are. And you're gonna give Saban a month to prepare for the next game.
I do think that they're gonna beat Michigan. I do. I think
they're gonna win that game. But I again, I'll I'm sticking with Washington
right now. I really am there underdog, right yeah. I still think
everybody's underestimated them, and I think the reason they're underestimating them is they haven't
seen him enough and they're from the West, right. I hadn't been so
impressed until they beat their crap out of pretty much beat their crap out of
Oregon the last game. I hadn't seen that organ team yet. That was
a pretty good Washington and we'll have more to say about that, all right,
stick around, break you news here at the top of the hour,
our Fab five Friday Picture a day because we forget to Telebrady. This is
our last show of the year, so we'll talk more about that when we get back